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RELIEF OF 


ARMENIANS 


HEARINGS 

BEFORE THE 

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SIXTY-FOURTH CONGRESS 
First Session 

on 

S. CON. RES. 12 


STATEMENT OF 

RIGHT REV. ARSENE E. VEHOUNI 

PRELATE, ETC. 


JUNE 21, 1916 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1910 

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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 


House of Representatives. 


[Committee room, gallery floor, west corridor. Telephone 230. Meets on call.] 


HENRY D. FLOOD, Virginia, Chairman. 


CYRUS CLINE, Indiana. 

J. CHARLES LINTHICUM, Maryland. 
WILLIAM S. GOODWIN, Arkansas. 
CHARLES M. STEDMAN, North Carolina. 
BYRON P. HARRISON, Mississippi. 
CHARLES B. SMITH, New York. 

J. RANDALL WALKER, Georgia. 
DORSEY W. SHACKLEFORD, Missouri. 
ADOLPH J. SABATH, Illinois. 

J. WILLARD RAGSDALE, South Carolina. 


GEORGE W. LOFT, New York. 
GEORGE HUDDLESTON, Alabama. • 
HENRY A. COOPER, Wisconsin. 
STEPHEN G. PORTER, Pennsylvania. 
JOHN JACOB ROGERS, Massachusetts 
HENRY W. TEMPLE, Pennsylvania. 
GEORGE EDMUND FOSS, Illinois. 
CLARENCE B. MILLER, Minnesota. 
LUTHER W. MOTT, New York. 
AMBROSE KENNEDY, Rhode Island. 


Robert Catlett, Clerk. 

B. F. Oden, Assistant Clerk. 


D. of D. 
AUG 7 1916 



D 

S' 

i *6 


J < * 



RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


Committee on Foreign Affairs, 

House of Representatives, 

Wednesday, June 21, 1916. 

The committee this day met, Hon. Henry D. Flood (chairman) 
presiding. 

The Chairman. The meeting was called this morning for the 
purpose of considering the concurrent resolution in reference to the 
Armenian question, which reads as follows: 

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring ), That, in view of the 
misery, wretchedness, and hardships which these people are suffering, the President 
of the United States be respectfully asked to designate a day on which the citizens 
of this country may give expression to their sympathy by contributing to the funds 
now being raised for the relief of the Armenians in the belligerent countries. 

This resolution passed the Senate on February 9, 1916. 

We have present to-day |Mr. Miran Sevasly, the general counsel 
of the Armenians of this country, and Right Rev. Arsene E. Vehouni, 
prelate of the Armenian Church in America. 

STATEMENTS OF MR. MIRAN SEVASLY AND RIGHT REV. 

ARSENE E. VEHOUNI. 

Mr. Sevasly. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this 
resolution, as you will remember, is a concurrent resolution which 
was first submitted to the Senate and which was passed by the 
Senate. About a month prior to that there was a resolution sub¬ 
mitted to the Senate for the relief of the Jews in the war zone in the 
belligerent countries. That resolution was not a concurrent one. 
Our President has ratified the same. When the resolution regarding 
the Armenians was submitted it was a concurrent one, and so far it 
has not passed the House of Representatives. 

The Chairman. The resolution in reference to the Jewish question 
is exactly like this? 

Mr. Sevasly. It is practically the same, except that it was not a 
concurrent resolution. 

The Chairman. It was a Senate resolution? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. The President has acted under that Senate reso¬ 
lution ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. Probably it was considered that it was 
not necessary that it should go to the House of Representatives. I 
will not go into the constitutional aspect of the question. 

Mr. Rogers. Have you a copy of that resolution? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Rogers. I suggest that that resolution be incorporated into 
the record. 



4 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


The Chairman. Certainly. 

Mr. Seyasly. I have here a copy of the resolution in regard to the 
Jews, the proclamation of the President, and the concurrent resolu¬ 
tion regarding the Armenians. We have prepared a short memorial 
which really epitomizes the case. Attached to that memorial is an 
appeal by his holiness the prelate of the Armenian Church, ad¬ 
dressed to the American people, together with a bulletin of the Ameri¬ 
can relief committee of New York, which lays stress upon the ur¬ 
gency and the vital importance of sending relief to about a million men 
who are disseminated over a vast territory through Turkey and Cau¬ 
casus, and Mr. Morgenthau, our late ambassador at Constantinople, 
who performed his duties so admirably, lays stress on the urgency of 
sending relief. It is our opinion that if some day were fixed when 
collections could be made to allow the American people to express 
their sympathy by extending material aid to these people, it would 
greatly help us. 

Mr. Morgenthau thinks that about $5,000,000 are urgently needed. 
The American Relief Committee says that, according to their knowl¬ 
edge, ever since deportations have been started that about 750,000 
or 800,000 men have deported from the different parts of Asia Minor 
to the wilderness of Mesopotamia. The reports we have are most 
thrilling and heart tearing—that these people are feeding on grass. 
So far, through the ambassador at Constantinople, we are able to 
send relief. We hear that Mr. Rockefeller has sent his agent to Con¬ 
stantinople and he has arrived on the spot and is to submit a report 
on these refugees and their condition, and then, we understand, that 
the Rockefeller Foundation will make some substantial contribution 
toward those people. Similar resolutions have been passed in regard 
to the Jews, the Poles, and other races which have been affected 
more or less by the terrible conflagration in Europe. 

Mr. Rogers. Passed by Congress? 

Mr. Sevasly. I think so; passed in regard to the Jews, I am sure. 

Mr. Rogers. I knew of the Jewish resolution, but I had the im¬ 
pression that that was the only one during the present war. 

Mr. Sevasly. It may be that I am wrong. 

The number of men affected by this war is about 1,600,000 men 
in the wilderness of Mesopotamia and about 350,000 refugees in the 
Caucasus. 

As the House will probably close its doors in about a month, I 
should say, and it is not likely to meet again until December, we 
thought the matter was one of such great urgency that we came here 
specially from Boston to lay it before your committee for the purpose 
of having the concurrent resolution submitted to the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives as early as possible, and, if possible, immediately. Of 
course, I am not well up on your procedure, but I understand that 
there are certain bills uncontested, as we say in court, and it may be 
that this resolution may be classed among those uncontested bills, 
because we fervently hope and we are perfectly sure that no one in 
the House of Representatives who has at heart the welfare of these 
people and who appreciates their terrible condition will oppose such 
an essentially humanitarian resolution. 

I will be glad to offer any information which I have not been able 
to submit to you in my short address. 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


5 


Mi*. Huddleston. How many Armenians are there in Asia? 

Bishop Vehouni. We have about 2,000,000 that are subjects of 
Russia. 

Mr. Huddleston. And how many Turkish Armenians? 

Bishop Vehouni. About 2,000,000. 

Mr. Huddleston. There are Armenians in Persia? 

Bishop Vehouni. About 150,000 Armenians, no more. 

Mr. Rogers. Please explain to the committee in what respect the 
passage of a resolution like this and-the issuance of a proclamation 
will aid you in raising funds ? 

Mr. Sevasly. I desire to state that these funds will be mostly 
collections in churches by benevolent people. Dr. Barton, who is 
the secretary of the Congregational board, and Mr. Dutton, who is 
one of the principal assistants on that board, and other people have 
told us that the passage of such a resolution will have a great moral 
effect on the people and that it will really disseminate throughout 
the country the importance, the necessity, and the urgency to con¬ 
tribute. It will, as it were, be ratified by the State and by the 
President and that will give it a moral importance which it would 
not otherwise have. 

Mr. Ragsdale. In other words, you think that a precedent having 
been established for resolutions of this kind that it will give you the 
same action on the part of the Government toward your country as 
other countries have received ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Mr. Ragsdale. And will make it an official rather than a private 
matter? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Huddleston. Who is raising the funds, what committee is 
taking up the collection ? 

Mr. Sevasly. The relief committee in New York called the Ameri¬ 
can Relief Committee for Armenia and Syria. At the head of this 
committee are men of different shades of opinion and men who hold 
important functions in different walks of life. Dr. Barton is the 
chairman, Mr. Dutton is the secretary, and the treasurer is Mr. Crane. 
Unfortunately, I have not all the names here. I think the names 
appear in the bulletin attached to those papers. The Rockefeller 
Foundation is cooperating with this committee. It is a very im¬ 
portant committee with ramifications throughout the Statbs. It is 
supported by all the churches of the States, the Congregational, the 
Baptist, the Roman Catholic, and different other denominations. 

Mr. Harrison. Who introduced the resolution in the Senate? 

Mr. Sevasly. I think it was Senator Lodge, if I am not mistaken. 

Mr. Harrison. The resolution touching the Jews was a Senate 
resolution which did not require the concurrence of the House ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Mr. Harrison. The resolution pending before this committee is a 
concurrent resolution ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Harrison. Why was it that a Senate resolution was not 
passed by the Senate touching the Armenians in the same manner as 
the resolution was passed by the Senate touching the Jews ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Those are really technicalities. 


6 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


Mr. Harrison. I thought possibly you had discussed it with the 
Senator and he had explained it to you ? 

Mr. Sevasly. I can not say. I was told that it was a lapsus 
calami. I do not think that those who submitted the resolution went 
into the question thoroughly whether it should be a Senate or a 
concurrent resolution. In my humble opinion, it should be a con¬ 
current resolution. I think that a resolution of this kind should go 
through both Houses, because it will give it more importance. 

Mr. Ragsdale. In other words, your idea is that you would like 
to have both branches of the legislature show their sympathy in a 
movement of this kind ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Mr. Smith. You have not any precedent apparently for the passage 
of a similar resolution by the House of Representatives—that is, you 
have not any record of a resolution similar to this having been passed 
by the House of Representatives? 

Mr. Sevasly. I do not think that I am in a position to answer your 
question. 

Mr. Smith. Would not this establish a precedent for the passage of 
a great many resolutions of this kind—for instance, for Servia, Poland, 
Belgium, and other countries which are in a similar condition? 

Mr. Sevasly. It may be that it will, but I have thought that each 
resolution that is submitted should be approved or disapproved on its 
own merits. In this connection, I think the urgency of the need is very 
great. The difficulties which the Armenians have had in collecting 
funds in this country have been very great, by reason of there being 
so many demands from different quarters. We only want to trespass 
upon your time to the extent of asking you to pass this resolution. 

Mr. Smith. Is there a special reason why it should be done for the 
Armenians as against the clemands and claims of these other countries ? 

Mr. Sevasly. I briefly stated it. This is a concurrent resolution 
which has to be passed through the House of Representatives. 

Mr. Ragsdale. There might be good reasons, as a matter of fact, 
for the friends, relatives, and representatives of either or all of the 
countries of the world coming to a neutral nation and asking for an 
expression of sympathy on the part of Congress for their destitute and 
suffering condition. There could be no objection to that ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Absolutely not. 

Mr. Ragsdale. That might be done with perfect propriety? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. I think this is in accordance with the 
principles of this great country. I think that it has been done in 
past times. This resolution has a purely humanitarian object. 
There is no idea, not the slightest idea, of putting this country in any 
diplomatic controversy with any other country—if we thought there 
was, we would not approach the subject at all. 

Mr. Harrison. Was there a report filed with this resolution when 
it passed the Senate ? 

Mr. Sevasly. I have not a copy of that report. 

Mr. Rogers. There was a resolution passed by the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives extending sympathy to the Jews some years ago? 

Mr. Sabath. I think that was in the Fifty-ninth Congress. The 
Senate passed a resolution three or four months ago; it was not a 
concurrent resolution. 


BELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


? 

,.^. r - Harrison. If the President issued his proclamation, as he 
C A/T in o' e ^ ewl i ma Her, you would get the result just the same ? 

Mr. oeyasly. It seems that the President can not do it, because 
ot the way this is submitted; it is a concurrent resolution. 

Mr. Harrison. I understand, but when the President issues the 
proclamation you get the result just the same ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Mr. Harrison. Whether it is a Senate resolution or a concurrent 
resolution ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. The procedure adopted is to pass the concurrent 
resolution ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Under which the President can not act until it 
has passed both Houses ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Mr. Ragsdale. If the House refused to pass the resolution, the 
Senate having already passed it, it would put us in the attitude of 
being hostile to it ? 

Mr. Sevasly. Exactly. 

Gentlemen of the committee, we beg to express to you our hearty 
thanks for this opportunity of appearing before you. 

(The papers submitted by Mr. Sevasly follow:) 

[Translation.] 

Keyork, the servant of Jesus Christ, and by the inscrutable will of God primate and 
catholicos of all the Armenians and supreme patriarch of the national see of Ararat, 
the apostolic mother church of the Cathedral of St. Etchmiadzin, to the Right Rev. 
Arsene Vehouni, the prelate of the Armenian diocese of America, patriarchal greetings 
and benedictions in the Lord. 

We have learned from letters addressed to us at different times by your reverence, 
as well as by other official communications, that our American fellow brethren in our 
Lord Jesus Christ are endeavoring with zeal to hasten as much as circumstances will 
permit the relief of the awful sufferings of those of our beloved children who have 
flocked around our metropolitan see as toward the last shelter of their hopes and the 
haven of their rescue. 

Our brethren in Christ, the heads and ministers of churches as well as the believers 
in the Christian precept of love, have designated a special prayer day to implore the 
Provider of all bounties to have pity on our people and to extend a protecting arm 
around our spiritual children. We are moved, heart and soul, by these public prayers, 
the expression of their C hristian sympathy, and tokens of their compassion toward their 
little brothers. 

It is our belief that the fervent prayers sent to heaven in thousands of churches to 
the throne of the Life-giver, like the sweet scent of perfumes, and the. sighs and lamen¬ 
tations of our people, mixed with the invocations of our fellow brethren among you, 
will be pleasant to the Lord, and His protection will be granted to secure the restora¬ 
tion of the small downtrodden nations, among which is ours—the martyred one. 

We regard as a special token of love the collection to be made during the prayer 
meetings, in order to rescue the survivors of the atrocities, to care for the orphans, the 
widows, the old, and the destitute children and the helpless. It is through such 
help that we hope to be able to impart to them the breath of life, to gather our scattered 
flock, to bind up the dried bones again, and to reestablish a new nation and a new 
people. 

It would not be possible for us to tell in words the extent of the needs of our children. 
Who can measure the horizon of the sea or the boundaries of the earth? So we are 
unable to measure, to weigh, or to comprehend the misery which has overtaken us, 
or to measure the infinite need and distress. Some of our children driven here from 
their homes across the frontiers seek shelter with us, and many others are exiled to the 
torrid zones of Syria and Mesopotamia, and all anxiously look for our help and solici¬ 
tude; their needs have no limit, while our means are wholly inadequate. 


8 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


Nothing more may be needed to express our appreciation of your acts of charity of 
our brethren of the United States. You yourself know better, that they are well 
instructed in the word of God, to love others and to hasten to their relief. We would 
only exhort you to multiply your efforts to promote their brotherly interest in those 
of our children who are around us, and in those who are exiled to Mesopotamia and 
Syria, because their griefs and sufferings are unbearable, and their needs too great 
to be met without assistance from abroad. 

We also entreat our brethren in Jesus Christ to be more generous, their gifts being 
as offers to the Lord and not to men, and their acts being animated by the pure love 
of Christian brotherhood, and not from any other motive. We should like the con¬ 
tributions to be made to you, and forwarded to us through you, in accordance with 
our former instructions. 

We trust in our Saviour that, though neglected for the present like orphans, our 
children will see the dawn of the day of liberation and that they will rise from the 
depths of misery and desolation. 

Be strong in the Lord, and may the blessings of God be with those who sympathize 
with the sufferers. 

Given on the 11th day of January A. D. 1916 (according to our calendar 1365), in 
the fifth year of our catholicossate at the metropolitan see of Ararat at Etchmiadzin, 
Yagharshabad. No. 39. 

Bulletin No. 4 

Latest News Concerning the Armenian and Syrian Sufferers, April 5, 1916. 


CONTENTS. 


I. Relief in the Russian Caucasus. IV. Summary of previous bulletins. 

II. Conditions in Turkey. V. Financial statement. 

III. News from Persia. VI. Map showing deportation and relief centers. 


AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF. 


[Main office, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York.] 

James L. Barton, chairman; Samuel T. Dutton, secretary; Walter H. Mallory, field 
secretary; Charles It. Crane, treasurer. 


Arthur J. Brown. 

Edwin M. Bulkley. 

John B. Calvert. 

John D. Crimmins. 
Cleveland H. Dodge. 
Charles W. Eliot. 

William T. Ellis. 

James Cardinal Gibbons. 
Rt. Rev. David H. Greer. 
Norman Hapgood. 
Maurice H. Harris. 


William I. Haven. 
Hamilton Holt. 

Arthur Curtiss James. 
Frederick Lynch. 

Chas. S. Macfarland. 

H. Pereira Mendes. 

John Moffat. 

John R. Mott. 

Frank Mason North. 
Harry V. Osborne. 

Rt. Rev. P. Rhinelander. 


Karl Davis Robinson. 
William W. Rockwell. 
George T. Scott. 

Isaac M. Seligman. 
William Sloane. 

Edward Lincoln Smith. 
James M. Speers. 

Oscar S. Straus. 

Stanley White. 

Talcott Williams. 
Stephen S. Wise. 


More complete information may be had from Walter H. Mallory, field secretary, 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

The committee urges immediate attention to this pressing need, and asks that all 
contributions be sent to Mr. Charles R. Crane, treasurer, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

[Since the issue of our last bulletin on the 21st of February the American Committee for Armenian 
and Syrian Relief has received reports from its agents showing that the total number of refugees who are 
in want exceeds the previous estimates. Certain obstacles to relief work which embarrassed the oper¬ 
ations of the committees in given districts have been removed, and it is now possible to cable credit with 
the certainty that the relief will reach not merely the great centers but also many outlying districts recently 
inaccessible.] 

I. Relief in the Russian Caucasus. 


The chief centers for relief in the Russian Caucasus are Tiflis, Erivan, and Etch¬ 
miadzin. The staff of workers has been strengthened by the sending of Floyd O. 
Smith, M. D., and William Cressy, M. D., to Tiflis under the joint auspices of the 
American Red Cross and our committee. They sailed from New York early in 
March and the committee is expecting daily to have news of their arrival on the 
field. Prior to their arrival, the conduct of the work has centered in a commission 
with headquarters in Tiflis. Its members are Dr. Samuel G. Wilson, Mr. F. Willoughby 
Smith, American consul at Tiflis, Rev. Richard Hill, Rev. Frederick W. Macallum 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


9 


and Mr. George F. Gracey, all of whom have appointments under the American 
Ked Cross All these men speak two or three languages, including Turkish, Armenian, 
and h rench, and are thoroughly competent to carry on the work of distribution. They 
will, of course, afford Drs. Smith and Cressy every possible facility for their work of 
medical relief. 

The following extracts give vivid pictures of the work of the committee in the Cau¬ 
casus. 


REV. S. G. WILSON, HEAD OF THE COMMISSION, W T RITES FROM ERIVAN, IN TRANSCAUCASIA 

DECEMBER 29, 1915. 

We have just returned from a tour of some of the Armenian villages where refugees 
are living and are ready to report on their condition from personal observation. In 
this district or governorship of Erivan there are 105,000 Armenian refugees besides 
Nestonans and Yezidees. Of these, 18,000 are in the town of Erivan; of these many 
are scattered in the homes of the people and others gathered in large buildings, or¬ 
phanages, etc. W r e visited the barracks where 420 were living. Room after room 
was full; in some rooms 40, in some half the number. The lucky ones were those 
that had a plank platform or board floor on which to sleep and sit. Manv of them 
were in the kitchen and storerooms on the bare ground. Most of them had insufficient 
bedding and many of them scarcely any. Some were lying four under one coverlet, 
head to feet. One man told us how he sat and shivered in the night till his teeth 
chattered. Another man stayed in bed in daytime because he had no clothes. One 
room contained, among others, two Protestent families from Van; the fathers had 
both died lately of disease; the mother of one group was lying sick. Seven or eight 
was the number of each household lying in rags on hay and with scarcely enough 
cover for two people. The atmosphere of the rooms was foul in the extreme. These 
people were from the city of Van and had lived comfortably. 

The condition in the villages is even worse. At Somaghar, 15 miles from here, 
we were taken about by the elder of the Protestant Church. Sad indeed were the 
sights that we saw. Some, too, indeed were comforting in a measure. This good man 
had taken into his household, already of sufficient size, two women refugees, who were 
clothed cleanly and neatly and fed as his own. Many of the Armenian villagers have 
taken in and cared for the destitute refugees. Others have given them the use of 
their spare rooms, bakehouses, stables, and barns. Fortunate are those who are in 
the bakehouses, for the heat in bread making is a free gift to them, albeit mixed 
with smoke. Fortunate, too, those who have the stables, for they have steam heat 
from the oxen and buffaloes, for those in the other storerooms and outhouses have 
no stores or fires. These uplands of Armenia have a severe winter. The ground 
is now covered with snow. Ararat, with its two grand peaks is always in sight, and 
but a few miles away. Cold winds from the Transcaucasus Range blow over the 
plain. The sight of these multitudes with neither clothing for day nor bedding for 
night is a great draft on our sympathies, which is intensified by their pitiful stories. 
We enter one bakehouse. One young man appeared among 15 women and children. 
They had been a prosperous patriarchal family of 36 persons—father, 3 sons, and 
their wives and children. Of them, 21 were killed, including all the men except 
this young fellow, who threw himself into the arms of a Kurd and was saved in some 
freak of mercy. This was a Protestant family from a village called Perkhus. We 
saw families of 13 and 16, mothers, daughters, brides, children, with no man. We 
asked, “Where are your men?” “They were all killed,” or “Of 70 men but 1 escaped, 
or “We were 100 men in the village, but 20 escaped.” There were 450 households 
in our village, but 20 or 30 men escaped.” “Were the women taken away?” “Yes; 
our pretty girls were carried off.” “How many?” “Four of mine.” “We, too, 
were stripped naked.” As to the rest of their sufferings and outrages they were 
silent. 

We addressed the one surviving man and asked, “How are you here?” He replied, 
“I was off as a soldier in the Turkish army. I heard of the massacres. By byways 
in the mountains I returned to find our village destroyed. I escaped to Russia and 
found them.” Another woman from Arjesh near Van said, “All our men were col¬ 
lected from the- bazaars, taken before the Government. After the dark we heard 
the shots w'hich killed them. We fled in the night.” 

In the village of Kurpaloo, with 300 houses, there are 900 refugees. Of these, 300 
are from the first exodus, January to April, 1915, and 600 of the second, in July-August. 
The first were able to bring with them some of their property. Many of the men 
came safely. The second was the terrible flight, after the massacres. Of these, 
40,000 are said to have died of disease after reaching Russian territory. The con¬ 
dition of the later refugees is most heart-rending. Let me give a few glances at con- 


10 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


ditions in Kurpaloo. A woman surrounded by seven or eight persons, with scarcely 
a bed for all and rags as their clothes said, “I escaped by throwing myself in the mud, 
a dead child lying over my head. There were 50 in our household. Nine women 
and boys were taken captive by the Kurds.” In the stable the oxen and buffaloes 
were crowding up close. At the side a flock of sheep was huddled. The air was 
stifling. Three families of 18 persons were crowded in one end in a space so small 
that it seemed impossible for them to lie down. Some had improvised a couch in 
the manger. A hammock for a baby was stretched above on two posts. Of the 
18 a blind youth was the only man. In a bakehouse were 27 persons, 1 youth, 
1 very old man. Six men of their household had been taken as soldiers, the rest 
were massacred. Of the 600 refugees of the second exodus who are in this village, 
about 30 are men. Some are escaped soldiers who were in the army when the atroc¬ 
ities occurred. One had dragged himself out from under a mass of dead bodies. 

Nor did all the women escape death. Women were wantonly slain; those with 
child ripped up with swords; the breasts of others cut off. Some threw themselves 
and children into the streams and from the precipices to escape outrage. One woman 
lately arrived who was captured some years ago by a Kurd. She had escaped now 
after killing the Kurd, and brought her two children with her. 

Maunjik .—Also many refugees. As in all others, great lack of clothing and espe¬ 
cially of bedding. Twenty-two persons in one room, two of them men. Mostly 
sleeping on the ground with bedding enough for one-fifth their number. In another 
room 10 persons, no men, 15 of this connection killed, girls carried away; 1 boy 
saved by hiding under skirt of mother; clothes in tatters, bedding lacking. 

Veri Ailauloo .—This village of 70 houses is sheltering 370 refugees, in wretched 
condition. Three families of 22 persons are in one bakehouse, one side of which 
is filled with dried manure. Their village in Turkey had 70 men, 1 escaped alive; 
4 girls and 3 brides carried off. Another hut contains 4 women and some children, 
the remanant of a family of 24. All the men of their village were killed. They 
are living in a wretched condition. Bread and water is the chief food of these refugees 
for months past. 

We are doing what we can to relieve this distress, supplementing the work of local 
and Government committees. Ready-made clothing in any large quantity is not 
to be found, nor blankets. Comforters we have purchased in small quantities. We 
are organizing some sewing circles in Tiflis, where we succeeded in buying about 
7,000 garments. They are hard to find, and transport is difficult when they are 
ready, as the army has the first right to the cars. 

I have not time to tell you of our reception by the Grand Duke Nicholas and his 
good wishes for the success and progress of our relief work, nor of our visit to the 
Catholics at Etchmiadzin and his warm thanks for the sympathy and help of the 
American people for his people in their distress. We were entertained by him over 
night. Governors, bishops, and press have all bid us godspeed. 

Warm clothing and bedding will save many from sickness and death. The pitiable 
condition of these wretched people should appeal strongly to our American people 
in their comfortable homes and in the enjoyment of ten thousand blessings. 

COUNCIL OF SUPREME PATRIARCH. 

The Council of the Supreme Patriarch and Katholikos of all Armenians writes to 
the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief from Etchmiadzin, the 
Armenian Canterbury, on January 1, 1916 (new style). From this letter, published 
in translation in the New Armenia, March 1, 1916, we quote the following passages: 

“At their second retirement from Van in July, the Armenian residents were bereft 
of all their possessions—houses, agricultural implements, and domestic animals— 
at the same time having their homes burned up. In the literal sense of the word 
100,000 to 120,000 Armenians arrived at Etchmiadzin stripped even of their outer 
garments. Thirty-five thousand to forty thousand of them were accommodated in 
Etchmiadzin. Through the central relief committee funds were secured by which or¬ 
phanages, medical dispensaries, and hospitals were erected. The need was exceed¬ 
ingly great. Day by day new groups of refugees kept arriving in a more serious 
and heartbreaking condition. Similarly, at several other places we greeted similar 
institutions by the help of other auxiliary relief bodies. Because the flight occurred 
under unexpected conditions the numbers of the sick and exhausted were exceedingly 
great, and in spite of all our manifold efforts the relief committee could not meet the 
very urgent demand of the time, and as a result of this the number of the dead was 
very large, because of the contagious diseases raging among the refugees in Etchmi- 
adzin and the country round about. In Etchmiadzin alone 11,000 people died, and 
in the country round about it about 40,000 people died. Through the means that 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


11 


the local committee used the disease was gradually checked. The patriarch of all 
Armenians put all the buildings at the disposal of this committee to be used as lodg¬ 
ings and hospitals. He even granted his own large house of more than 50 rooms to 
serve as a hospital. From 5,000 to 6,000 orphans and exhausted and worn-out people 
found refuge in the orphanages. They were like skeletons in human form. Through 
our care to-day they are safe and sound in Etchmiadzin, Dipghis, Baku, Erivan, 
Gharakilisa, and Ashdarag. We hope that they are destined to be the nucleus of 
the future Armenian nation. 

“Among these generous gifts the American contribution was greatly appreciated; 
though they were a foreign nation they were bound close to us by Christian love 
and compassion. In this matter it is not the material contribution merely that we 
Armenians appreciate, but more than that it is the humane and sympathizing spirit 
of Americans. Thus Americans have been the friends of humanity to whom many 
nations in their critical and destitute hours have stretched their hands for relief and 
need aid. 

“Our central relief committee has to perform many and various duties. Because 
of the winter now setting in, it has to provide comfortable lodgings, fuel, clothing, 
and a great deal of food. More than that, they are in need of new hospitals in order 
to check the various kinds of contagious diseases; also they need a number of orphan¬ 
ages for the orphans that keep coming in, and for them the committee needs schools; 
and for the grown people, industrial employment.” 

The following letter was written to Prof. Dutton by Dr. Samuel G. Wilson, head 
of our commission at Tiflis, dated January 11, 1916: 

“We were made glad yesterday by the telegram announcing the grant of $50,000 
additional from the committee. We immediately proceeded to make new purchases 
of clothing and are contracting for larger supplies’which can not be purchased ready 
made. I will return in a few days to Erivan to push the distribution, while Mr. 
Hill will remain here to urge on the preparations and to forward the goods. 

“We have an energetic and sympathetic associate in the consul, Mr. Smith. Most 
fortunately the winter is passing mildly in these parts, so that the refugees have not 
the ordinary severity of the trans-Caucasus climate to endure. Should the weather 
turn cold as usual, it will increase the suffering and lead to much sickness. 

“We called on Mar Shimun, the patriarch of the Nestorians, who was here on a 
visit. For some time he has been a refugee in Salmas, Persia, from Turkey. He 
expressed his gratitude and appreciation of the aid and sympathy showed by Ameri¬ 
cans for his people now, as well as by their schools, hospitals, press, and other good 
things in the past.” 

An extract from another letter of Dr. Wilson’s, dated January 14, 1916, says: 

“We have been busily engaged making contracts for clothing and bedding since 
we got the telegram granting the $50,000. To-day I go to Erivan, where I will con¬ 
tinue distribution. That district has by count 100,716 refugees (Armenians), besides 
’Nestorians and Yezidees. They are listed for bread allowance. We hope to protect 
from cold and sickness some thousands of them by our funds. Tens of thousands are 
without bedding and clothing except rags. . 

“Mr. Macallum will arrive to-morrow. He will probably follow me to Erivan. 


Dr. Wilson writes again, February 4, 1916, from Erivan: 

“The work of the committee is going forward with regularity. The coming of 
Dr. Macallum and Mr. Gracey made a fine addition to our working force. They are 
now in the villages in the mountain region of 1 ake Gokhcha, distributing clothing— 
which reaches them partly from this point, and partly irom Tifiis, w here Mr. Hill is 
purchasing, and Mr. Smith is aiding the work of the committee in many ways. 

“Here the subcommittee have done a good w r ork and I am carrying out their plan 
on the plain to the west of here. Thev have been and are preparing garments and 
bedding here and at Samahgar and we will fill the needs of the refugees in the villages 
of which they have taken the census. The rest of our goods will be distributed in 
the Lake Gokhcha region. It is colder and therefore rails for more attention to keep 
the refugees from acute suffering. Fortunately snow has not yet blocked the roads 
and distribution is easily possible. The committee has decided to add soap, tea, and 
suo-ar also to its articles for distribution. You understand that the bread allowance 
from the (Russian) government barely allows enough bread to sustain health and 
affords nothing else. We are giving something extra to invalids or convalescents. 
The government appropriated another million and a half rubles at the beginning of 
the vear for the refugees in the Caucasus. Both government and committees have 
been active latelv in distributing bedding and clothing Soon they will have covered 
the districts, possibly as soon as we have finished the district assigned to us. La ely 
a large consignment'of clothing, old and new, from America reached Etchmiadzin 
for distribution. Thus the work, though tardily, is being accomplished. Ye are 


12 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


doing something also to meet special cases of need, and setting some artisans to earn 
their living. The latest statistics show the refugees to be 234,400, of whom 182,800 
are in the Caucasus, 12,100 in the conquered districts of Turkey, and 39,500 in the 
conquered parts of (the province of) Azerbaijan, Persia.” 

Mr. F. Willoughby Smith, American consul at Tiflis, writes: 

“Dr. Wilson is in charge of relief work in the city of Erivan. Dr. Macallum and 
Mr. Gracey are distributing relief among the villages north of Dilijan and expect to 
proceed next to the mountain villages of Novo-Bajazat. Their task is a very difficult 
and trying one. They are being rapidly supplied by shipments collected together 
by Mr. Hill. Practically all the supplies were bought or contracted for at Tiflis. 
The original contracts were made by Dr. Wilson and Mr. Hill and are now being fol¬ 
lowed out by others on the same lines and conditions. 

“I have to congratulate you on sending out Dr. Wilson. His services as a buyer, 
not to mention many other points, have been incalculable. Thanks to him and 
Mr. Hill purchases have been made in many cases at prices far below those paid by 
other organizations and the goods obtained were of better quality. You certainly are 
doing a great work.” 

The American committee has also received the following cablegram from Consul 
Smith, dated March 20: 

“Referring my letter February 23.” (Not yet received.) “Committee' under¬ 
taking repatriation refugees. Wilson and Hill leaving for Van. Macallum and 
Gracey following on completion distribution here. Number refugees returning to 
their homes increasing. Governor Van urges immediate provision of cattle, grain, 
implementg, to start cultivation, which would provide for coming of returning thou¬ 
sands. Work must be undertaken on large scale. Immediate requirements hundred 
thousand dollars.” 

These communications show that the Russian Government is taking the lead in 
returning great numbers of the Armenians to their homes, many of which are in the 
formerly Turkish Province of Van. Plans are being made to have them raise crops, 
so that they will have food for themselves and for the multitudes who will return in 
the wake of these agricultural pioneers. But in the months that must elapse before 
the harvest they will be dependent on continued relief. 

II. Conditions in Turkey. 

Direct news of the Armenian situation in the Turkish Empire is not easy to secure. 
The following items show that assistance is very much needed and that it is possible 
to send it to-day in a way that was impossible last autumn. Four reports of relief 
agents working in concentration camps in Turkey in December, 1915, have been 
printed in a pamphlet issued by our committee entitled “The deportation of the 
Armenians described from day to day.” These depict the sufferings of the exiles 
from rain and cold, and the terrible mortality from disease. The closing paragraph 
of the report of December 13 is as follows: 

“There is still much work to do on the route to R-S and it seems to me we ought not 
to give up the work among the distressed as long as anybody of them is left in this 
place, because they would certainly die of starvation. ” 

According to a Washington dispatch printed in the New York Tribune of February 
19, 1916, the United States Government sent on February 18 a formal protest to 
Turkey against the continued atrocities on the Armenians. Concerning this protest 
the committee has no information other Than the newspaper dispatch. 

On the 1st of March information reached this country that the Turkish minister of 
foreign affairs has emphatically asserted that “all deportation of the Armenians had 
ceased and that no more would take place, and that Protestant and Catholic Armenians 
who have been deported would be allowed to return to their homes. ” In Constanti¬ 
nople it was reported that some amelioration of the Armenian deportation was evident 
and that Armenian,relief was now being distributed among the Armenians without 
local interference. 

On the 17th of March information reached the State Department from the charge 
d’affaires at Constantinople relative to additional funds for Armenian relief. A para¬ 
phrase of the dispatch is as follows: 

“The American consul at Aleppo reports that half a million Armenian refugees are 
now in the districts of Damascus, Zor, and Aleppo. All of these are within reach of 
the relief committees at Damascus and Aleppo. All relief committees strongly urge 
larger remittances. Peet declares that the relief already received has worked wondersj 
and if properly continued will help save a Christian nation from extermination. 
According to his information there are 300.000 thousand refugees in Turkey who need 
help besides the half million referred to. Present sums are inadequate to bring these 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


13 


people through the winter, and $1,000,000 can be very profitably employed.” 
Mr. Feet is the business agent and treasurer of the four Turkey missions of the American 
Bo £l d °J- Commissioners for Foreign Missions, with headquarters at Constantinople. 

I he dispatch shows that the number of survivors is greater than has been stated in 
former estimates, which varied between three hundred and five hundred thousand 
Now it is cabled that there are 500.000 in the districts of Damascus, Zor, and Aleppo 
^ a number of Armenian refugees in Turkey who need help is at least 

Too !!!'• u th , ere are 800 ' 000 refugees to-day in Turkey and, as reported above, 
182,800 in the Caucasus and 12,100 in districts of Turkey conquered by the Russians, 
at least 1,000,000 Armenians are still alive. If the figures in the dispatch do not 
include the 150,000 Armenians who have not yet been deported from Constantinople 
and the Armenian population still in Smyrna, we can, perhaps, estimate the number 
of survivors to-day at between 1,150.000 and 1,200,000. 

At the outbreak of the war the total Armenian population in Turkey was estimated 
at between 1,600.000 and 2,000,000. Various members of the committee have assessed 
the deaths caused by massacre and deportation at from 800,000 to 1,000,000. The 
latter figure is undoubtedly too large. These estimates may now be revised so that 
the number of deaths will probably range between 450,000 (or'600,000) and 800,000, 
depending on which figures one adopts for the Armenian population of Turkey before 
the war. 

Though the situation from the point of view of human life is not quite so black as 
it seemed, the increased estimates of the number of survivors throw all the greater 
burden on the facilities for relief. 

AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU. 

On the 22d of February Ambassador Morgenthau arrived at New York on his fur¬ 
lough. He has told members of the committee of the great need in Turkey and has 
authorized the publication of the following letter: 

“I want to urge upon your committee the great necessity of their securing additional 
funds to enable us to render further assistance to the Armenian sufferers. 

“If you could only bring home to the public the large amount of good done by the 
expenditure of the funds already sent us and the number of people that we were able 
to save from dire distress, I feel convinced that there would be a generous and prompt 
response. 

“On behalf of the Armenian sufferers, as well as the missionaries and consuls who 
have distributed the funds, I want to heartily thank the committee for their untiring 
•fforts and ready compliance with my past requests. ” 

III. News From Persia. 

Relief work in Persia centers in the cities of Urumia, Salmas, and Tabriz. The racial 
elements who needed help were chiefly Nestorian Christians. Hundreds of years ago 
the Nestorians lived in Syria and their language is Syriac, but since the thirteenth 
century they have lived in several groups near the boundary of Turkey and Persia. 

In the mountains of Kurdistan between Van and Urumia there were, perhaps, 
50,000 of them. Of these fifteen to twenty thousand survivors, including Mar Shi- 
mun, the Nestorian Patriarch, found an asylum on the plains of Salmas. Persia, in 
October, 1915. Of the perhaps 30,000 more Nestorians living in the valley of the 
Tigris near Mosul and northwest of that city no tiding have as yet come. The third 
Nestorian group, consisting of about 30,000 of the residents of Urumia in Persia, suf¬ 
fered terribly during the Turkish occupation of that city from January to June, 1915, 
as thrillingly described in The War Journal of a Missionary in Persia, edited by Mary 
Schauffer Platt (published by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York). When the Russian 
army returned to Urumia in June, the refugees were allowed to leave the mission 
premises. Of their subsequent adventures the following report gives a convincing 
picture: 

1. REPORT OF RELIEF DISTRIBUTION ON URUMIA PLAIN JUNE 1—DECEMBER 1, 1916. 

At the beginning of June, 1915, when the people emerged from our premises emaci¬ 
ated from sickness and malnutrition and crushed by the blow that had fallen upon 
them, they were confronted by a seemingly hopeless situation. Practically all of 
their household furnishings and food supplies had been plundered; the same was true 
of their domestic animals, on which they depended in large measure for their subsist¬ 
ence; their houses were without any doors and windows, and probably a full third of 


14 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


them had been demolished. They were in terror about going back to their villages; 
they feared their Moslem neighbors who had despoiled them of their property, out¬ 
raged their wives and daughters, and killed many of their relatives; they feared, too, 
lest the Russian troops might again withdraw and leave them to the mercy of their 
enemies; and they were anxious lest the missionaries who had sheltered them for the 
previous months might forget them when they were out of sight. Everything tended 
to make them cling to our mission compounds or their vicinity. To permit them to 
do this was of course out of the question. Our efforts, however, to scatter them to 
their village homes formed one of the most pitiful phases of our relief work. The 
people had to go, but as long as they received their bread from our yards they would 
. not; and so we had no choice but to cut off the food supply, after giving each family 
sufficient flour to support them a week. At the same time with the help of the newly 
arrived Russian consul, pressure was brought to bear upon the landlords of the Chris¬ 
tian villages to support their tenants until harvest. Some of these could not, because 
they themselves had been plundered; others would not, in spite of consular pressure; 
and others promised to give the needed assistance, but delayed it from day to day with 
all the ingenuity of excuse for which the Orient is notorious. The result was that 
our yards were thronged daily with hundreds of people clamoring for food. To give 
way would have nullified all our efforts to get the people on their own feet; and only 
when it was absolutely clear that nothing could be gotten from the landlords of any 
one village did we assume any degree of support for the people of the village. Little 
by little progress was made, and although the villagers were wretchedly miserable, 
the approaching harvest made subsistence by their own effort possible, and virtually 
all food distribution ceased for a period of three months. 

There was another form of relief, however, that was imperative. In the vast majority 
of villages there was not a spade to use in repairing their houses, in ridding their 
vineyards of weeds, or in burying their dead, and there was not a scythe or sickle with 
which to reap their harvest. The best and surest way to help the people was to give 
them these implements, and so for upward of a month we virtually subsidized all the 
blacksmiths of the city in our endeavor to get these instruments in time for the har¬ 
vest. When we closed this department of our relief work, we had distributed 2,661 
scythes and sickles and 1,129 spades, at a cost of 18,909.90 krans. (The exchange 
value of a silver kran is approximately 8f cents.) 

By the beginning of August the situation was considerably more hopeful. The 
people with consular help had succeeded in collecting a good deal of their plundered 
property, including bedding, household utensils, and a few cattle; the harvest was 
good, although the acreage was below the average, and the promise of the vineyards 
was excellent. Then fell another blow, what seemed an inexplicable providence. 
Events in another section of the war necessitated orders for a sudden withdrawal of 
the Russian troops, and the evacuation was actually carried out with the exception 
of a small force which remained with the consul on the hills outside of the city. With 
the going of their protectors the whole Christian population of the plain, with the 
exception of some 200 sick and aged who again took refuge in the mission yards, fled, 
some only to the northern edge of the plain, but many to Salmas and Khoi and even 
Julfa. Fortunately it was summer time; but, even so, the misery was intense, and 
cholera and want and hardship claimed many victims in those few weeks. Worse 
still, much that the people had reclaimed of their stolen property and gathered from 
their fields was taken once more by their Moslem neighbors; and so, after nearly a 
month of miserable hardship and uncertainty, the poor Syrians and Armenians 
returned to their twice-plundered homes. Very little relief, however, was given 
during the next few weeks; for from the fields and vineyards much still could be 
secured in the way of food. 

At this time we calculated that about 10,000 to 15,000 of the Christian inhabitants 
would have to be supported during the winter months, and we were making our plans 
a cordingly, when a new and overwhelming burden descended upon us. For months 
the Syrians of Kurdistan had been holding their own in their mountain fastnesses, 
hoping for succor from the Russians. When this failed and their enemies increased on 
every hand they had to flee, many many perishing in the attempt. Some 30,000 of 
them arrived at last in Salmas and neighborhood in almost absolute destitution. A 
few succeeded in bringing a part of their sheep, but most came with nothing, half 
naked, and without any means of livelihood. This army of wretchedness was halted 
by the authorities on the plain of Salmas and on the hills surrounding it until their 
location should be determined upon. Mr. McDowell of our relief committee who 
has had years of experience among these people left at once for Salmas, and grappled 
with the serious problem of their immediate relief; but for the assistance given by our 
committee there hundreds of them would have perished from hunger. As it was 
cholera, typhoid, and pneumonia did their worst among a people wasted by hardship, 


BELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


15 


unprotected from the cold, and without shelter. Shortly the streams of suffering 
humanity began to pour across the pass that separates the Salmas from the Urumia 
plain and to scatter themselves in the villages of this section. A few weeks before we 
had been wondering how the inhabitants of the plain would find shelter for themselves 
in their half ruined villages; but from the accompanying statistical report it will be 
seen that they have made room for nearly 16,000 refugees from other districts. For 
example, the village of Geogtapa has doubled its population, having received as many 
of these guests as it had inhabitants of its own. 

About the middle of October we began to take steps in preparation for our winter 
relief work. The first thing was to buy up all supplies of wheat that we could secure 
while the price was low—the lowest in years—for the purchasers were few and the 
owners anxious to turn their crops into cash before any more untoward events might 
transpire. The wheat thus secured was stored in different parts of the plain, accessible 
as distributing centers. The doing of this required quite a force of reliable men who 
could act as wheat buyers and weighers. 

The next step was to get accurate lists of the actually destitute in every village. 
This was no easy task, for many felt themselves entitled to assistance who were not 
wholly destitute, and to discover who were really in want among the hundreds of 
poverty-stricken plundered inhabitants of each village required both tact and firmness. 
The task was made doubly hard by the constant stream of new arrivals from Salmas. 
On the basis of these lists tickets were issued for bedding and for food, the two most 
crying needs. 

For bedding it was decided to issue large wool quilts large enough to cover several 
persons. These we found could be made for 3 or 34 tomans ($3.26) per quilt. Under 
the efficient direction of Miss Lewis and later of Miss Lamme a quilt factory was started, 
which in time employed over a hundred needy women in carding wool and sewing the 
quilts. This factory in its three months existence consumed over 84,000 yards of 
calico, 35,000 pounds of wool, and some 1,500 pounds of cotton and expended over 
18,000 tomans; it taxed the resources of the dry goods merchants to supply our demand 
and it quite exhausted the wool supplies of the city. Our plan was to give only one 
quilt to four persons, families of over four to receive two or more according to the num¬ 
ber of members; but after the issue of tickets we found that we could not possibly supply 
the need, and so regretfully we had to limit our giving to one quilt to a family. The 
inadequacy of this relief was seen when we began to distribute to the families of moun¬ 
taineers, for with them all the brothers and 'their wives and children form one family, 
and it was not uncommon to have families of over 20, one as high as 35; but in spite of 
their inadequacy the 5,510 quilts issued have saved the lives of many, for literally 
thousands were facing the rigors of winter without any bedding whatever. 

Our wheat distribution, too, had to 1 e of the most economical nature. We issued 
what was supposed to be a two months’ supply at one time, giving a Russian pood and 
a half per capita for this period, that is, about 50 pounds. To the widows and orphans 
and to the new comers from the mountains we gave flour instead of wheat. The actual 
cost of this assistance in food at current prices being 2| shahis per day to a person, or 
about Id cents; but even with this small gratuity the total amount given of wheat and 
flour was 4,000 poods, or about 140,000 pounds, costing about the same as the quilts; 
that is, about 18,000 tomans. 

With these small gifts to individuals amounting in the aggregate to large figures, 
and with the similar work that has been done in Salmas and Khoi, and even for the 
district of Albak our funds have been exhausted, and we are waiting now what the 
generosity of America will do about it. Had it not been for this generosity many would 
have died of hunger and cold the last two months, for aside from what our conmmittee 
has done very little has reached the people from any other source. We are grateful 
indeed to acknowledge the receipt of considerable sums from his Lordship, the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, for the Syrian refugees from the mountains, but still the largest 
part has come and must come from America. We shall have to look to our friends in 
America for their continued aid if this unfortunate people, the victims of Moham¬ 
medan hate, are to be,kept this winter and established in their homes once more. 

2. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM URUMIA, PERSIA, WRITTEN IN JANUARY, 1916. 

“Conditions here are terrible. Moslem villages by the score have been abandoned 
and the people crowded in the city. Many of the villages have been plundered. The 
Sunni villages of Dole and Barenduz have been wiped out after massacre and plunder. 
Naban Sunnis are now being fed by us in the Sunni Mosque. They say the Armenians 
did it, but an investigation is supposed to lie in progress to find out the facts. I am 
weary of trying to do anything under existing conditions. ” 


16 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


“I came to Salmas two months ago in order to help here, especially in quilt making. 
Mr. McDowell had come several weeks previously and Mr. and Mrs. Pittman came the 
same time I did. We have given out in Salmas, Khoi. and Albuk among refugees 
nearly 4,000 quilts; the last few hundred are being distributed this week. Mr. Mc¬ 
Dowell gave out wheat for several weeks, but has had to stop for lack of funds. The 
Russians began distributing funds, apparently not systematically, then stopped. 
This week I hear they are giving again.” 

‘ We are giving a little flannel for underwear from funds sent to us individually; 
but all that we have done is but a drop in the ocean the need is so great. The men 
are fairly well clothed, but hundreds, perhaps thousands of women, are almost naked, 
and undoubtedly many will die from exposure and hunger, even at the best.” 

“To-day is a wet, shivery, snowy day; the first wintry day we’ve had, and in every 
one of the s?ore or more of villages round about us are thousands of shivering, naked 
children huddled close together in dark, airless cellars, in stables, in partly inclosed 
balconylike places, grateful for a scrap of dry bread. Hundreds are still lying sick 
with this same dry bread as their only nourishment, and these miserable holes as their 
only homes, until we who have seen so much of it all through this awful year have 
almost ceased to feel even a pang at the sight of the long rows of graves in the village 
cemeteries. Personally, I feel it a cause of thanksgiving that there are several thou¬ 
sands less of children than there were last New Year to suffer the miseries of hunger, 
cold, sickness, and exile.” 

A letter from the Rev. H. A. Muller, dated January 24, 1916, states that over 800 
Moslem refugees in the villages were being helped out of relief funds. The number of 
such refugees was increasing. 

The report of the Persian Relief f ommission, which represents us in Urumia and 
elsewhere, gives the following statistics of refugees assisted between November 1 and 
December 31, 1915. The great majority received both food and bedding. 


Refugees from Turkey.t_'.. 11,392 

Refugees from Persian border districts.'.. 4, 397 

Destitute inhabitants of Urumia Plain. 13, 723 


Total receiving relief in plain of Urumia. 29, 512 

The number of refugees from Turkey living in other districts helped by the Persian 
commission is approximately as follows: 


From Salmas. 12, 000 

From Khoi. 3, 500 

From Albak. 6,000 

Armenians in Salmas. 9, 000 


Total in other Persian districts... 30, 500 

Grand total of persons assisted in Persia, November-December, 1915.. 60,012 


IV. Summary of Previous Bulletins. 


The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief has published three 
bulletins before this one. The first, headed Report of the Committee on Armenian 
Atrocities, consisted of 12 galleys released for publication in the newspapers on the 4th 
of October, 1915. It announces incredibly severe treatment of the Armenians in 
Zeitoun and Marash in April, and the widespread deportations in Asia Minor in July, 
1915. Other detailed narratives tell of massacres on an extensive scale and describe the 
heart-breaking fate of the women and children who were forced to travel on foot from 
their highland homes to the torrid districts of Mesopotamia. Other letters tell of the 
sufferings of exiles through insufficient food and clothing and call for relief on an un¬ 
precedented scale.- 

The second bulletin, entitled “Latest News,” was issued January 26, 1916, deals 
with the relief work as reported chiefly by cables and letters from Persia and the 
Caucasus. There is appended a long and significant account of the exile of the 
Armenian inhabitants of an unnamed Turkish town. The third bulletin dated 
February 21,1916, continues the news of relief. 

The committee has also other free literature for distribution, including circulars 
posters, and a pamphlet entitled “The deportation of the Armenians described from 
day to day by a kind woman, somewhere in Turkey.” 

There is in preparation a comprehensive booklet describing the origin and course 
of the massacres and deportation of 1915, and giving a summary of the relief work. 















RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


17 


V. Financial Statement. 

Ambassador Morgenthau estimates the sum necessary to be raised in America for the 
relief and rehabilitation of the Armenians at $5,000,000. As is evident from the 
financial statement submitted herewith, it is necessary to make renewed and persistent 
effort to save from extinction the survivors of the deportation. 

TREASURER’S REPORT, MARCH 20, 1916. 


Total receipts from subscriptions. $433,141. 35 

Relief rendered to date: 

Constantinople. $190, 000. 00 

Constantinople (Armenian Patriarch). 10, 000. 00 

Cairo. * . 6, 374. 00 

Tiflis. 138, 200. 00 

Tiflis, medical supplies. 825. 00 

Do. 922. 96 

Persia. 75, 000. 00 

Special relief. 210. 00 


Total. 421, 531. 96 


Balance to be appropriated. 11, 609. 39 


The expenses of the campaign in America are not included in the above summary, 
as they are borne by members of the American committee, so that 100 cents of every 
dollar contributed by the public may be transferred by cable. 

If you want to secure speakers or hints on organizing campaigns write to Walter H. 
Mallory, field secretary, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. He can also supply free litera¬ 
ture, including comprehensive pamphlets, news bulletins, circulars, and posters. 
Write to him to-day. 

Everybody must help. All contributions should be sent to Charles R. Crane, 
treasurer, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

WHAT YOUR GIFTS WILL DO. 

In Persia, $5 will keep 400 people alive a day, or 13 people a month. 

In Turkey, $5 will keep 83 people alive a day, or 3 people a month. 

How many lives are you willing to save? 

[S. Res. 45, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session.] 

RESOLUTION. 

Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, 
the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; and 
Whereas millions of them have been driven from their homes without warning, 
deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, 
causing starvation, disease, and untold suffering; and 
Whereas the people of the United States of America have learned with sorrow of 
this terrible plight of millions of human beings and have most generously responded 
to the cry for help whenever such an appeal has reached them: Therefore be it 
Resolved , That in view of the misery, wretchedness, and hardships which these nine 
millions of Jews are suffering, the President of the United States be respectfully asked 
to designate a day on which the citizens of this country may give expression to their 
sympathy by contributing to the funds now being raised for the relief of the Jews in 
the war zones. 

[Contribution day for aid of stricken Jewish people.] 

By the President of the United States of America. 

A Proclamation. 

Whereas I have received from the Senate of the United States a resolution, passed 
January 6, 1916, reading as follows: 

« Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, 
the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; and 

52750—16-2 















18 


RELIEF OF ARMENIANS. 


“Whereas millions of them have been driven from their homes without warning, 
deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, 
causing starvation, disease and untold suffering; and 
“Whereas the people of the United States of America have learned with sorrow of 
this terrible plight of millions of human beings and have most generously re¬ 
sponded to the cry for help whenever such an appeal has reached them: There¬ 
fore be it 

“ Resolved , That, in view of the misery, wretchedness, and hardships which these 
nine millions of Jews are suffering, the President of the United States be respectfully 
asked to designate a day on which the citizens of this country may give expression 
to their sympathy by contributing to the funds now being raised for the relief of the 
Jews in the war zones.” 

And whereas I feel confident that the people of the United States will be moved 
to aid the war-stricken people of a race which has given to the United States so many 
worthy citizens: 

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, in compliance 
with the suggestion of the Senate thereof, do appoint and proclaim January 27, 1916, 
as a day upon which the people of the United States may make such contributions as 
they feel disposed for the aid of the stricken Jewish people. 

Contributions may be addressed to the American Red Cross, Washington, D. C., 
which will care for their proper distribution. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this eleventh day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the Independence of the United 
States the one hundred and fortieth. 

[seal.] Woodrow Wilson. 

By the President: 

Robert Lansing, 

Secretary of State. 

(Thereupon the committee proceeded to the consideration of 
executive business, after which it adjourned.) 





































































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